STARTING Thursday, December 9, the CNMI is allowing home quarantine and isolation for fully vaccinated and asymptomatic individuals able to isolate, Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. Chief Executive Officer Esther L. Muna said Friday.
Joined by Dr. Richard Brostrom of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in a media briefing, Muna said concerns regarding individuals’ mental health, as well as the availability of resources amid the surge, have also factored into the decision to allow home quarantine and isolation.
But she said these home options are not for everyone, adding that individuals will need to undergo an interview process to assess the vaccination status of their household, as well as to determine the eligibility of their home for self-quarantine and isolation.
“We still believe that the quarantine site is still a great place because the treatment is there, but at the same time, we also don’t want to have individuals there who do not need the treatment. We want to continue to do this efficiently and save lives. That’s always our goal,” Muna said.
She added that the decision was made in consultation with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the CDC.
Dr. Brostrom, a former medical director of the Commonwealth Health Center, is in the CNMI to provide additional assistance through the federal Covid-19 response teams that recently arrived on island.
“Clearly,” he said, “the CNMI is in the midst of its first real, big surge. The surges that I’ve gone through were in Guam and in Hawaii. When this occurs, it’s quite difficult to continue the heroic work of following every case and tracking every case and putting everyone into isolation and government hospitals. The system can get bogged down, as has happened in the U.S. and every other place. The departments of health, with the cooperation of the community and other agencies, are beginning to move towards more of a home isolation when it’s appropriate.”
He added, “For those that need a hotel to isolate in, that’s still going to be provided. But for the majority of people who feel okay, they can be in a room by themselves and minimize contact with the community and get help from their family. Home is the best place for them to be.”
He said “there is a lot of public information and public education that we need to continue to share. This is just simply the first of several efforts to begin to implement more of a community-based policy [that] we think is going to ease some of the concerns of the community and still address the needs. One of the key components of this is community testing.”
Dr. Brostrom said monoclonal antibody treatment is also something that community members can avail themselves of, noting that it has been utilized across the country and region.
“This is a treatment for those who are positive [for Covid-19 and] have symptoms. This medicine can help keep them out of the hospital,” he said.
However, individuals who are experiencing severe Covid-19 symptoms will need to be hospitalized.
Monoclonal antibody treatment includes receiving four doses and undergoing observation for an hour.
Muna and Brostrom said this treatment is not a replacement for the Covid-19 vaccine, but it will supplement treatment and prevent severe illness, hospitalization, and death.
Individuals who test positive for Covid-19 need to be isolated for 10 days.
Those who are tested for Covid-19 need to be re-tested five days later to avoid what is known as a false negative result.
Rapid antigen testing is now available to the community at the Department of Fire and Emergency Medical Services stations in Garapan, Susupe, and Kagman from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday, or Saturday.
Persons under investigation, or PUIs, can still go to work and do not need to be quarantined or isolated at the government-designated quarantine site, provided that they practice the 3W’s: Wear a mask, Wash your hands, Watch your distance.
Muna said this shift does not change the travel protocols currently in place.
She added that persons undergoing home quarantine or isolation still need to monitor their symptoms.
“We want to make sure that we don’t have a high number of hospitalizations… We are lucky that no one is on a ventilator, but again, there is a concern. We want the best outcome for anyone. Whether they’re a positive case or they’re hospitalized, we want to ensure a better outcome. This is the way to do it, by making sure that individuals that are asymptomatic are fully vaccinated and are able to isolate [so that] we can focus on individuals that are symptomatic,” she said.
